30 July 2023
VOLUME 11 – NUMBER 514
Camping success at last
Okay, so after my fail of a campout last week at our stake YSA “campout,” this week I was determined to make something happen. I invited Hannah, Heidi, Brit, Ashton, Endia and Cougar to join me.
I had my temple shift on Saturday, so I needed to go somewhere close to get back in time. My friend Brit suggested a spot up Spanish Fork Canyon (close to where I lost my car keys in the river several weeks ago). She went up early and saved us a spot, and it was perfect!
We campted right by a river with a nice fire pit, trees for setting up hammocks, and spots right by the river for our tents. This was much more the experience I needed. There is something so peaceful and calming about being away from civilization and breathing in the nature.
It seems like I am also always able to feel the spirit and connect with God more when I'm away from all the distractions of life. Whether that be in the temple or out in the mountains or in the ocean.
I'm so grateful for not only the beauty of this incredible earth, but also that I'm able to feel God's love in a variety of ways. God is good!
Singing songs around the campfire
This week for our youth activity, we went to Kearns Rec Center, to swim. It was really fun. I haven't been there in so long, but when I walked in, to the indoor pool, it was worse than I remembered it. There were so many people, and the water was a pretty disgusting color.
It was so much better outside. It was perfect weather, the water was a nice blue, and it looked pretty clean. It was really really fun. I jumped off of the red platform, it was a pretty far jump, and I can't remember how tall it was, but it was fun. I had gone on it before, but it had been a long time.
I got used to it and went on it a couple of more times, and then I wanted to try the next highest one, and so I went to that one, and when I got to the edge I looked down over the edge, and jumped!
It was really fun. I went on the blue one a couple more times, and then it was closing time and we had to leave. It was a really fun, time, when we got back home, we had corn dogs, and macaroni and cheese, since Dad let us pick our dinner.
Young men swimming activity
For our young men's activity, we went swimming at the Kearns Rec Center. I wasn't feeling good, so I didn't go swimming. I just sat with Dad and watched the others dive off of their platforms.
It was kind of relaxing, just sitting there with the sun on my face and just resting. There were some pretty cool diving moves that some people did.
Everyone in our group went off of the platforms multiple times. These platforms were pretty high, and I don't think that I would have been able to do them.
Right before we left, one of our leaders, Erick Hernandez, decided he would jump off of the platform. It was really funny and cool that he did that!
London, Ashton, and friends camping
On the 24th,Cougar and I made it to a firework show in Lehi that Natalie invited us to. There was a little Indian Jones skit with awesome props and effects. The fireworks were also incredible! They were huge and right over the top of us!
We also headed up Diamond Fork Canyon for a quick camping trip with London and Ashton. Hannah and London made amazing food in their Dutch oven and I slept well on our air mattress. I think Cougar and Ashton stayed up talking at the fire until about 1am.
Cougar camping
We have been practicing for Sunday because we are doing a musical number in the 5th Ward, and so I am very nervous because I only know the first verse of I Am a Child of God in Spanish, and we need to know all three verses.
I did learn all three verses before we sang. We went up to the front, and me and Quinn and Joanna were going to sing the fist verse, but when we started, Quinn and Joanna started laughing, and then I laughed a little but I held it together for the most part.
Then Joanna started tickling me and Quinn, and I barely held in my laugh. We sang good, except for the laughing, and I felt the spirt a lot. Mom and Dad said that Quinn and Joanna were laughing because that’s what happens when they get nervous.
Saying goodbye at the bus station
So I have some news. I'm going to Los Angeles again as a zone leader. This means that my eight months here in Los Sauces have come to an end.
It's crazy how much I've learned and grown here. It has been a great opportunity to meet all of the really special people that live here on the other side or the world in a small town in a foreign country. I will miss Los Sauces.
Ellie at BYU Bean Museum
On Saturday we took the girls to BYU’s Bean Museum, or as we would call it growing up, the “quiet zoo.” We met up with my sister, Angie, who lives in Provo.
Ellie loved seeing all the animals and said her favorite was the elephants. I think her favorite thing was actually a coin machine that she was trying to play with until we had to drag her away—ha ha!
Charlie was less interested and started crying when Braden tried to hold her up to an animal.
Afterwards, Angie’s husband, John, met up with us and we went out to lunch. It was fun getting to spend time with them. Overall, it was a great day!
Braden and Charlie at Bean Museum
FSY is next week! I’m so excited! But even though I could talk for hours about how excited I am, other things happened this week. We went to Kearns Rec for our young men’s activity.
I had so much fun getting in the water, and swimming around, and jumping off the diving platforms.
That pretty much sums up my week, so next time I’ll be telling y’all about FSY!
Young men swimming activity
This week I on Tuesday I went to Riley's house and we played Uno and watched Back To The Future 3. Later we had a spaghetti dinner that Riley’s mom made.
On Wednesday we went to the temple as a family. Also, for mine and Vedi's young women activity, we went to our leader’s house and made dinner. We made chicken and vegetable salad and it turned out really good.
Thursday I went to Lagoon with Riley, Carson and Xander Reading from the 7th Ward. We left at around 10:00am. When we got there, we went on the Samurai ride, and then we decided to buy tickets and do go carts.
Riley and I were in the same cart and I drove. After we did it the first time, we decided to buy tickets again. Riley drove the second cart.
At like 4:00pm, we decided to leave the park and I went to Riley's house and we watched a movie. On Friday we went to the store and got stuff for FSY that's coming up on Monday.
Caleb, Elder King, Shaiel, and his mom
We sang I Am a Child of God today in church, and i was scared. After we got home, we had granola and yogurt for lunch. Then we played fork and spoon, and Zoom, and then we had ice cream and chips.
Pregnant Mable
So this week was very busy because FSY is coming up, so we have to pack and make sure we have everything for it. It was really stressful.
We were training two dogs this week. One of them is named Cappuccino. He is an Australian shepherd and a German shepherd mix, and he was so cute.
the other dog is named Javi. He is a fluffy french bulldog, but he was the runt of the litter, so he did not come up fluffy at all, so his owners got him for free. He has been here three times for training.
Ashton camping
Recently in the last couple weeks I have been taking some Spanish lessons from a girl in my ward. She is here on a grant, but they only brought her to the country and didn’t give her any guidance or advice on anything else for living or work.
Since she can’t work legally yet, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to see if she wanted to help me learn Spanish! It has been good so far, especially being able to practice.
Speaking of speaking Spanish, Sunday was our family special musical number in the 5th Ward sacrament meeting. Kai, Isaac, and I were the tenors and we had a “tenors only” practice beforehand to try and make sure that we had all of our parts down as well as the words.
It ended up being a really fun memory, and seemed like it was meaningful for the people in the ward.
Mom filming MyPack Dog Training video
After several weeks of preparation, and purchases of a basic light kit, microphones, and even an iPhone teleprompter setup, we are finally ready to start recording MyPack dog training videos for YouTube.
It was kind of intimidating getting started, and knowing so little about some of these things, but things turned out pretty well.
As I may have mentioned before, over the past month, we have been converting the Bunkhouse from a home theatre room into more of a project studio, with lots of space for filming setups.
Mom and I started filming several videos for product reviews on elevated dog beds. We had just purchased a couple possible replacement options for the beds Mom has been using, and I figured this would be good practice for our Apples4Apples videos, which we will start next.
iPhone Teleprompter